I see that you have C2D cpu, that tells me that you should have PCI-e slot on your motherboard.

But there are C2D's out there with AGP slots, so he should check what Motherboard he has and what slots are available,

Claggy

True, but! He linked auction for PCI-e card. At this point we might as well start playing game of 100 and 1 questions.

For example. The description of X1600 that he linked is for MOBILE X1600, not Desktop. So we got so much stuff mixed up, it will take next 5-6 posts just to get all the right bits of information together.
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My budget; I'm very open minded! Maybe $120 upper limit
Priority number one is to fix the screen so i can see the display. Currently the only way i know if its working is by checking if it contacted the SETI servers looking for work.

If i can fix it cheap with any identicle graphics card, then great, i'm happy. But i'm also open minded if i can kill two birds with one stone and buy a more expensive graphics card that will fix the problem and at the same time, maybe crunch more SETI work? I don't know if this is possible?

My budget; I'm very open minded! Maybe $120 upper limit
Priority number one is to fix the screen so i can see the display. Currently the only way i know if its working is by checking if it contacted the SETI servers looking for work.

If i can fix it cheap with any identicle graphics card, then great, i'm happy. But i'm also open minded if i can kill two birds with one stone and buy a more expensive graphics card that will fix the problem and at the same time, maybe crunch more SETI work? I don't know if this is possible?

Action Plan 1
Get a cheap PCI video card. Not PCI-e, just good old PCI. That motherboard has two PCI slots, just get a cheap PCI video card. Since you already have ATI drivers installed, get a card with ATI chip. Take your X1600 out, plug your new card in. Boot the comp. It will work. If you have local mom and pop computer store, check with them, they usually have boxes with old rubbish parts, see if they have some ATI cards, should be maybe 5-15 dollars in cost (or whatever it is in Euros). If they don't have PCI, then get PCI-e card. If I remember right, last time I was in one my local stores, they mostly had old PCI-e cards. The main goal of Action Plan 1 is to get you video, so you can actually see what is going on.

Action Plan 2
You have good power supply, 520 Watts is very nice to have. Get a new ATI/AMD PCI-e video card. I don't use ATI/AMD cards for crunching so maybe start a separate thread for suggestions which card is better bang for the buck from the ATI/AMD stable. Once you get the card installed, I also would suggest updating Boinc to 7.x.x. When you look for ATI/AMD cards, start with 5xxx generation because it does DX11, you might upgrade that comp to Win7 in the future, might as well get something relatively modern. Skip the HD2400/3xxx/4xxx cards.
ATI/AMD cards technical info: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/131
ATI/AMD cards power requirements: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/AMD-ATI-Chips-Comparison-Table/131/2
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Your existing video card uses less than 50 watts. In that category nowadays, no need for an external power connector, you are looking at something like the HD 7750.
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"Life is just nature's way of keeping meat fresh." - The Doctor

Some months back, the power supply fan started making noise so i smacked it with a heavy blunt instrument in fustration to stop the noise. So yes, this fixed the power supply fan noise problem, but i have had no screen on the computer ever since. But i can hear the hard drive scratching when it starts up and i know its working because its still crunching SETI work and connecting to the SETI servers all the time for the last few months. I just can't see the screen!

This leads me to the conclusion, that when i hit the computer with the hammer to fix the power supply fan, that the motherboard was NOT dammaged. So i'm assuming its the graphics card. I'm afraid of spending $100 or more for a new graphics card and then it doesn't work or the the problem is somewhere else.

spitfire_mk_2,
I like the sound of "action plan 2". Yes, i want the bigger more powerful card. If i install a new graphics card, will it install itself automatically? I mean, if the computer does not have software installed for the new card, how can i see the screen to install the new software. Or do graphics cards just automatically install themselves on start up? This is the bit i'm afraid of! Is it just a case of plug it in and off it goes by itself?

Some months back, the power supply fan started making noise so i smacked it with a heavy blunt instrument in fustration to stop the noise. So yes, this fixed the power supply fan noise problem, but i have had no screen on the computer ever since. But i can hear the hard drive scratching when it starts up and i know its working because its still crunching SETI work and connecting to the SETI servers all the time for the last few months. I just can't see the screen!

This leads me to the conclusion, that when i hit the computer with the hammer to fix the power supply fan, that the motherboard was NOT dammaged. So i'm assuming its the graphics card. I'm afraid of spending $100 or more for a new graphics card and then it doesn't work or the the problem is somewhere else.

spitfire_mk_2,
I like the sound of "action plan 2". Yes, i want the bigger more powerful card. If i install a new graphics card, will it install itself automatically? I mean, if the computer does not have software installed for the new card, how can i see the screen to install the new software. Or do graphics cards just automatically install themselves on start up? This is the bit i'm afraid of!

John.

I think you better go with Action Plan 1. Get cheap pci or pci-e card. I think maybe your X1600 might be ok. I think you might be having power supply problem. If you know any people who tinker with their computers, see of they will let you borrow a video card. For example I have old Tseng something ISA, ATI Xpert 98 PCI, ATI Xpert 2000 AGP, ATI 9250 AGP video cards.

Another thing you can do is take the power supply and test it. Some mom and pop stores have testers and would do the test for you, maybe even for free. The tester itself is just a gadget that fits in the palm of the hand.

I would not do the Action Plan 2 until you figure out if your power supply is good. 10-15 euros for used video card is one thing. 80-100 euros for new video card that would make your power supply die because there is something wrong with the power supply and possibly ruin your whole computer is serious money, to me.

About the drivers. WinXp is pretty good about looking for drivers. Since you have X1600, I assume you have the Catalyst Control Center and drivers installed. I think that generation of drivers covers 9xxx and X300-X19xx series of cards. If you get something newer, the Xp should be able to find some generic driver to use. You only need specific driver (like the Catalyst) if you want advanced features, and since crunching is advanced feature, you will need to tell Xp to use ATI/AMD driver instead of Windows generic. But all that is after you get the card installed and showing stuff on the screen.
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I think you better go with Action Plan 1. Get cheap pci or pci-e card. I think maybe your X1600 might be ok. I think you might be having power supply problem. If you know any people who tinker with their computers, see of they will let you borrow a video card. For example I have old Tseng something ISA, ATI Xpert 98 PCI, ATI Xpert 2000 AGP, ATI 9250 AGP video cards.

Another thing you can do is take the power supply and test it. Some mom and pop stores have testers and would do the test for you, maybe even for free. The tester itself is just a gadget that fits in the palm of the hand.

I would not do the Action Plan 2 until you figure out if your power supply is good. 10-15 euros for used video card is one thing. 80-100 euros for new video card that would make your power supply die because there is something wrong with the power supply and possibly ruin your whole computer is serious money, to me.

About the drivers. WinXp is pretty good about looking for drivers. Since you have X1600, I assume you have the Catalyst Control Center and drivers installed. I think that generation of drivers covers 9xxx and X300-X19xx series of cards. If you get something newer, the Xp should be able to find some generic driver to use. You only need specific driver (like the Catalyst) if you want advanced features, and since crunching is advanced feature, you will need to tell Xp to use ATI/AMD driver instead of Windows generic. But all that is after you get the card installed and showing stuff on the screen.

spitfire_mk_2,
Ok, that makes sense. I'm taking your advice!

I went away there for a few minutes to actually check inside this desktop computer i'm typing on now. I had a look to see what graphics card was in it. No, unfortunatly this PC i'm using now does not have a graphics card that will fit the other broken PC. Leave it with me for a while, my brother might lend me a card out of his PC for testing. Maybe i will try that. But it will take 2 or 3 days to contact my brother and see what cards he has.

Guys thanks for the help! I will come back with any more questions and i will let ye know what happens!

Which also matches the requirements page for that Sapphire version at Sapphire's site. If his system can handle a X1600SE then it can handle this card.

You are probably right. For 7750 I got 500 Watt for single card, 600 Watt for Crossfire setup, but yes, I see what you mean from the AMD website. Maybe my source overestimating the psu requirements, a lot of cheap psu don't actually deliver the power that their label says they should deliver.
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The computer was actually processing SETI work for the last year and a half, i just couldn't see the screen. So i tried several things. I took the advice given to me in this thread (Thank you guys), and i went to the local computer shop and i bought a brand new power supply (600w) and, as suggested here, i bought a Sapphire HD 7750 graphics card.

So i went home and installed the HD 7750 graphics card. But no luck! It still did not work, and i was very disappointed. So i switched off again and changed the power supply for the new 600 watt supply i bought, leaving the new HD 7750 graphics card in place. Darn.... again, no luck! I had the new 600 watt power supply and the new graphics card, and still no working screen? Very disappointing! Whats wrong i thought?

So for the hell of it, i switched off again and, leaving the new power supply in place, i put back in the original old ATI Radeon X1600SE graphics card. And bingo! Fixed! So it worked with the new power supply and the original ATI Radeon X1600SE graphics card. So that means the ATI card was never broken in the first place. It was the power supply all along!

So then i spent about 2 hours reading on the internet and trying different things to try to get the new HD 7750 graphics card to work seeming as i had bought it anyway. But no luck! No matter what i try, i cannot get the new HD 7750 graphics card to work. But its ok, i'm happy that the problem is solved and it just turned out in the end to be a broken power supply. So tomorrow i will bring the new HD 7750 graphics card back to the shop and get a refund of my money. The guy in the the computer shop said i can do that.

So all turned out well in the end. It would have been the icing on the cake if i could get the new HD 7750 graphics card to work. If i got it to work, i would keep the new card because it seems to be a better one.

But thank you guys for the good advice you gave me. I would have never solved it without your help. Thank you guys!

The computer was actually processing SETI work for the last year and a half, i just couldn't see the screen. So i tried several things. I took the advice given to me in this thread (Thank you guys), and i went to the local computer shop and i bought a brand new power supply (600w) and, as suggested here, i bought a Sapphire HD 7750 graphics card.

So i went home and installed the HD 7750 graphics card. But no luck! It still did not work, and i was very disappointed. So i switched off again and changed the power supply for the new 600 watt supply i bought, leaving the new HD 7750 graphics card in place. Darn.... again, no luck! I had the new 600 watt power supply and the new graphics card, and still no working screen? Very disappointing! Whats wrong i thought?

So for the hell of it, i switched off again and, leaving the new power supply in place, i put back in the original old ATI Radeon X1600SE graphics card. And bingo! Fixed! So it worked with the new power supply and the original ATI Radeon X1600SE graphics card. So that means the ATI card was never broken in the first place. It was the power supply all along!

So then i spent about 2 hours reading on the internet and trying different things to try to get the new HD 7750 graphics card to work seeming as i had bought it anyway. But no luck! No matter what i try, i cannot get the new HD 7750 graphics card to work. But its ok, i'm happy that the problem is solved and it just turned out in the end to be a broken power supply. So tomorrow i will bring the new HD 7750 graphics card back to the shop and get a refund of my money. The guy in the the computer shop said i can do that.

So all turned out well in the end. It would have been the icing on the cake if i could get the new HD 7750 graphics card to work. If i got it to work, i would keep the new card because it seems to be a better one.

But thank you guys for the good advice you gave me. I would have never solved it without your help. Thank you guys!

(Also note; I upgraded to BOINC 7.0.28 as suggested!)

John.

Bummer about the HD 7750.

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"Life is just nature's way of keeping meat fresh." - The Doctor

Yea, it was a bummer alright Keith. But i look at it this way - The end result is that the computer works, and now i can see the screen again. For me its a trade-off between having the very latest stuff, and actually getting the stuff to work. Its about survival and being content with what i have, and knowing my limits, knowing what i am capable of doing with computers, and knowing what i am NOT capable of doing :)